


4:30

by Resonant



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: M/M, Romance, Smutlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-11-04
Updated: 2004-11-04
Packaged: 2017-10-06 12:43:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Resonant/pseuds/Resonant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neville meets Harry sometimes, and they talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	4:30

When the common room is dimly lit by the embers of last night's fire, when the only sound is the occasional snore from the bedrooms upstairs, when the black windows show neither stars nor the first rays of the sun, Neville meets Harry sometimes, and they talk.

Neville is getting up, then; he's always been an early riser, and he likes the quiet. He suspects that Harry hasn't been to bed at all, that he's been out under the cloak, wandering about looking for trouble.

And they don't really talk, not with words. They kiss, frantic and clumsy; they grope at one another's bodies under their clothes with such desperation and lack of skill that they're as likely to cause pain as to give pleasure. Nearly all school year they've been doing this, and they don't seem to be getting any better at it. But it doesn't matter very much. They always come, sometimes more than once -- they're sixteen, so it doesn't take much skill.

And the pleasure isn't really the point; even Neville can figure that out, and he's got even less experience in relationships than Harry has. It's more that, for the time they spend touching one another in the darkened common room, all the rest recedes a little. They don't have to be afraid, then. The inevitable future withdraws a bit before the present, and for just a while, they're just young animals instead of being failed heroes. And they're not alone.

Sometimes Neville likes to imagine something different. He imagines a room with a bed in it and daylight coming in through the windows. Imagines them both undressing, lying down together, kissing slowly with their eyes open, talking -- "Is that good? Do you like that?" Imagines being able to see Harry's face when he comes.

He's pretty sure that's not going to happen. When Harry goes looking for love -- if that's what it is, in that dream of his -- he'll choose a girl, a pretty one, someone who can go to dances with him and give him babies. Neville thinks he'd like babies himself, if he could be sure the war wouldn't leave them orphans, or worse.

But for now, this is enough, better than enough, in the deep darkness before the sun rises, when his classmates can be children again as they sleep, and he and Harry can cling together, and just for a moment be warm all the way through.


End file.
